Eskmo fuses extreme energy, heavy drums, broken asphalt, warped cries from the netherworld, dirty boots, distant snow-capped mountaintops and a fat dose of whomp to create his unique sound which is more than music, it is a translation of messages from highly-evolved beings of the future. They are telling us to dance. Growling and intense, the sounds that Eskmo lays on the world ripens the ears of its recipients to revolution, to a new way of musical expression that cannot be captured but only lived with broken beats in the brain and shakes of the ribcage.

Also known as Brendan Angelides, Eskmo has been writing and performing music since 1999 and also produces under the name Welder for his more downtempo, ethereal works. Eskmo’s music has been featured in such publications as URB, DJ Mag, Knowledge Mag, BBC Radio1, Rinse FM and Breaks FM. A regular on the Left Coast festival circuit, Eskmo’s sick live performances and innovative bass camping has brought him many loyal fans throughout the US, UK, and Europe.

A firestorm of originality, Eskmo‘s music is always unique and inspiring. This San Francisco producer has just released a mix exclusive to Brainfeeder made up all of his own tracks and remixes; download it for free on the Brainfeeder site here. And listen. And then TELL ME that is not absolutely fucking amazing music. Wow. I am in love.

Symbiosis Gathering is not your average festival; these days even one-night outdoor events are calling themselves ‘festivals’ when everybody knows it is nothing more than a corporate event where most of the attendees are there to party, and not much more.

Symbiosis is different. With a focus on environmental consciousness and ecological sustainability, this celebration has a deep respect for our natural world as well as the community it sustains. Besides green living, Symbiosis is very much about transformational learning experiences and the aesthetics of co-creation, from visual arts to performance, rituals and dance.

And then there is themusic. Not only does Symbiosis Gathering provide a meaningful backdrop to showcase our beloved West Coast artists and their evolving future sound, but we also create a welcoming environment for musicians, bands, DJs and producers from all over the world. From dubstep legends and jam band rockers to abstract beat scientists and street bass pioneers, there will be many old favorites to dance to as well as plenty of new discoveries to make.

Visual arts are also a major focus of Symbiosis, and you will find large-scale art installations, body art, a graffiti mural, a full-size art gallery space and live painting and workshops from many talented creators including Alex and Alyson Grey. Performing artists will also roam the venue and inject the community with the wild, the weird, and the wonder-inspiring. Come and join in the fun!

Transformational learning and integrated education is also central to the Symbiosis philosophy, and there will be workshops, playshops, discussions and presentations on a wide variety of subjects from esoteric philosophy and embodied movement to sacred geometry and composting alchemy. Our “Wellness Oasis” has a variety of resources to rejuvenate your body, nurture your spirit, and expand your mind with reiki, acupuncture, tai chi, Capoeira, juggling and much more.

And more! We have organic food vendors, sustainable arts and craft merchants in the tribal market, a kids’ area, guided nature walks, eco-arting, a lake for splash wars and water wings, and dishwashing stations to help you make this a no trash, carry-in, carry-out event.

Join us at historic Camp Mather on the edge of California’s treasured Yosemite National Park; the beautiful outdoor location is a gracious player and its natural splendor will inspire all who encounter it. It is with great respect that we will dance upon this land.

Last year in between four straight days of partying and boarding a Tuesday morning flight to Thailand, I somehow wrote a review of the epic, amazing time I had at Seattle’s Decibel Festival.

A party like no other, Decibel is a city festival held in the clubs, bars, parks and museums of Seattle, an event for the people, by the people. I will be reposting my review from last year along with photos and links, in five parts: Intro, Day 1, Day 2….you get it.

On Friday I was up and skulking around Cap Hill by noon (after eating breakfast with Jahcoozi a few short hours before) for the lunchtime dB Conference on (duh) music journalism where I got insights from writers from XLR8R, Resident Advisor, the Stranger and more. One striking fact of the panel for me was that in a room of about thirty artists, only two were female, myself included. Where the ladies at? Next year, how about a panel on the dearth of female artists in the electronic arts?

Making my Friday was a delicious French-toast crepe and Wasabi Bloody Mary from Grey Gallery; highly recommended if you like your hangover with pickled okra and a very, very clear head.

That night I returned to Grey to catch a little of the Kulturszene DJ lounge before heading over to Neumos for the Dirty Dancing showcase where Let’s Go Outside was tearing it up. I love this DJ for his music and for this. I wanted to stay but my heady bass-freak self propelled me all the way over to the Baltic Room for the Native State Showcase; this venue is the perfect match for the Dark Lords of Native State. Welder was keeping the crowd wobbling and soon KiloWatts (also performing at dB 2009!) was shaking the whole earth with his structured and driving brand of crunky bass- this sound pioneer gave one of the best performances of Decibel, for sure. The people were lapping it up like kittens. Evil little kittens.

It was hard to pull away but I had to head back over to Neumos for Deadmau5. I lost track of how many times during the festival I went back and forth between the Baltic and the Pike Street area; I walked it at least four times, took a cab twice, drove at least once and bummed a ride a couple of times. Once I took a hoola hoop.

I really didn’t know what to think of Deadmau5- I am familiar with his music and had done some research for a pre-Decibel article but had never seen him live and really didn’t know what to think of Mr. Joel Zimmerman. Downstairs at Neumos he was chilling and connecting the mad wireage inside his now-blue Mau5head, whose ears are a lovely velour, fun to rub, and insured. He was feeling a little pain from the night before in Edmonton where he and his manager had tied one on, but there was no hint of that at all when the Mau5 took the stage, because-

Deadmau5 completely blew me away. His performance was my biggest surprise of the festival. Dance-floor transcendence, and you know what I mean. I tend to fall into the brainwaves of “oh, everyone in the world likes this artist, so he must really suck”- but Deadmau5 simply wrecked mad destruction; the dance floor was so freaking packed you hardly even had to dance- all the people around you just moved your body around for you, and all you had to do was give yourself to it. I really don’t think Joel knows how good he is, despite all the Beatport awards and accolades; all he cares about is getting back into his studio and making music. No really, that is all he cares about.

However I did convince him to head over to the Church of Bass for the Subsequence afterhours and arrived just in time for the very last of Kris Moon’s set and then proceeded to get sticky with Phidelity whose psychedelic robotty-bass grooved perfectly with the dark dance church, all decked out for the festival with sweet black light art. We then got a second dose of Brendan Angelides aka Welder who performed this time as Eskmo, who is a dreamy poet of electronic intensity- I don’t know what world he comes from, but I want to buy a ticket.

Tune in next time for the Day 3 installment of Decibel Festival 2008: A Review, A Reawakening!

It was nearly two years ago now that I moved back to the States from New Zealand. Summer in Seattle was swelling to the crusty-hot days of August and I had a shit job doing shit bartending work at a shit hotel downtown, working long into the night scrubbing bar mats and serving drunk tourists. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing with myself whatsoever. None.

I had never listened to electronic music before in my life.

Well okay that is not entirely true; I had stumbled upon the dub and reggae scene in New Zealand, and high on rotation in my iPod were Katchafire, Fat Freddy’s Drop, Pitch Black and Salmonella Dub as well as anyone who had remixed them. Guys in the Auckland record stores were always happy to school an interested American girl on their island music.

I had also spent many happy nights out on the town with my flatmate Ian, dancing for hours in Auckland’s happenin’ Viaduct area, and had walked home more than once from these “Heels Only” clubs with bleeding feet. Before in my life I had glided past a thousand dance clubs drooling out lame house music onto the streets, but for some reason, I started going in towards the beats and shaking what my momma gave me for the first time ever.

I left Auckland, and months of traveling around New Zealand led me to discover pockets of counterculture dotted all over the two islands. Tiny camp towns like Marahau, barely even a freckle on the map, are nestled next to insane national parks and were populated by a swirling mix of artsy locals, hikers who were about to tramp the mountains or who had just returned from a month in the bush, world travelers, hippies, neohippies, surfers from Santa Cruz, stoners, seekers, searchers, and freaks like me.

These havens were full of people whose life was centered around sharing art and creating a sustainable and beautiful life, such a stark contrast to most Americans I knew whose only goals seemed to revolve around bigger cars, bigger houses, and more more more.

But soon enough I was back in the US of A and fairly floating through space and time with no plans and no idea whatsoever. I wondered where the beautiful spirits congregated on this continent, and if I would find them.

And then a friend invited me to this music and art festival in the woods of Northern California called Symbiosis. It would be a very long day’s drive from Seattle with him and his girlfriend and we would stay for three nights at place called Angel’s Camp. The festival was focused on sustainability and would be a pack-in, pack-out affair. Did I want to go?

Hell yes I did. I had the slight problem of a jobby-job, but I have never been one to let a bullshit job get in the way of my life. So, I faked pneumonia. I went to the hospital (to be fair I did have a cough) and when the doctor said he could write me a note to get off work for two days, I said, “well, how about until next Tuesday?” The doctor agreed and I was off work for a very long weekend, bound for my first true outdoor party experience.

I think you guys know how this story goes.

Arriving early to the isolated location, my friends and I set up our tents in between the two stages, and what happened for the next four days in that remote wooded spot changed my life forever, as I now write to you deep in the thick of what will be my life’s work, writing for and promoting the music that I love and the artists who make it. It was not just the music I experienced that shook my spirit and lit my soul on fire, but the thick saturation of artistic expression and the community around it. It was a haven for freaks like me; I had finally found a home in this life, and it was beautiful.

When I look back at the lineup for Symbiosis 2007, it blows my mind: Shpongle, Flying Lotus, Ott, Bluetech, Glitch Mob, BLVD, Souleye, Ana Sia, Zilla, Lazer Sword, Audiovoid, Danny Corn, Hallucinogen in Dub, Chris de Luca, Mala, Bassnectar and dozens and dozens more. These artists were my first toe-dip into the world of EDM, and I think you can see why I turned out the way I did.

I can’t remember if it was the first or second day, but around about five in the morning one night these four guys were up on the second stage, just tearing up the dance floor. They were slamming sound down with such force I thought my neck might break; I had never before experienced any type of music, electronic or otherwise, that was so fresh and unique and unlike anything else out there. I was not hearing this music, I was living it: I was breathless and losing clothes by the minute and probably had a long string of drool dripping off my lower lip.

I turned to a new friend next to me on the dance floor and asked, “What do you call this music? With the really heavy, fucked-up bass?”

“You call it GLITCH,” was the reply. And a fiend was born.

Since that night I have seen the Glitch Mob dozens of times and have devoted my life to sharing not just glitch hop and its bass-slutty cousins, but the whole music and art and community experience that has meant so much to me in this life, which I think I can say, a DJ saved.

I returned to Seattle with an insatiable hunger for the beats and began going out six nights a week to electronic music shows, meeting new friends with open arms at every turn. While I might possibly have found another road to the electronic arts that I now so adore, I did not. Symbiosis opened my eyes and set me on my current life path of promoting and writing for musicians and artists. I am eternally grateful for the past, and forever stoked for the future.

Now, after a year’s respite, Symbiosis Gathering is back for 2009, this time at Camp Mather on the doorstep to Yosemite from September 17-21 and with a lineup that will slap you across the face, pour fireworks into your soul and call you a cheesemaker. Check the whole lineup here; I am most looking forward to hearing Caspa, Amon Tobin, Bassnectar, Pretty Lights, the Glitch Mob, Shpongle, Flying Lotus, Hallucinogen, Mala, N-Type, an-ten-nae, Mimosa, Of Porcelain, Vibesquad, Heyoka, Kether, Lazer Sword, Lipp Service, Souleye, Welder, Random Rab, Babylon System, Jupit3r, Mozaic, Mr. Rogers, R/D, Treavor Moontribe, Sleepyhead, Sexytime, Nikola Baytala, Noah Pred and about eight zillion more.

I will no doubt discover several new favorites, and I am more excited about this outdoor festival than any other this year. Not to be rash, but I have heard several people talk about how much more fun Symbiosis is than Burning Man. Whoa. That is almost party blasphemy, right?

Whether you are just hearing about Symbiosis Gathering or have been waiting with baited breath for this year’s installment, one thing is certain: the music will blow your mind, stamped and approved by DF5K.

STS9 and 1320 Records drop remix album Peaceblaster on June 23rd and 100% of the proceeds will go to the Make It Right Foundation of New Orleans, an organization dedicated to rebuilding the city and helping reestablish the lives of so many people whose worlds were devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

I am from the dirty South; I grew up drinking purple and have spent many beautiful days and more than a few crazy nights in the rich, colorful, delicious city of New Orleans. It is a place thick with layers of a storied past and a city like no other place on earth.

Make It Right is Brad Pitt’s lovechild (one of ‘em) and the foundation is working with the residents of the ravaged 9th Ward to rebuild the neighborhood in a sustainable fashion while retaining all of the character and soul that makes New Orleans so special.

Besides helping people who really need it, JUST CHECK OUT this ridiculous list of just some of the 30 artists who remix STS9 songs on Peaceblaster:

Lazer Sword

Glitch Mob

Eskmo

Bluetech

Alex B

Ott

Nosaj Thing

Welder

Deru

Pretty Lights

Eliot Lipp

Daedelus

Bass Science

See the rest of the artists and the track list here; the album drops June 23 and will be available on iTunes or at 1320 Records. Buy that shit.

Read my review of STS9 with the Glitch Mob at the Wiltern Theatre in LA here.

The crowd ranged from a guy in a red jumpsuit (“I have it in four colors!”) to girls with feathers in their hair to chicks with armfuls of sparkling Swarovski crystals to the dude dropping beats in a welding helmet.

What impressed me the most about the night was the fluidity of sound between the three artists, a cohesive theme of trip which threaded the night together like a psychedelic path to the moon. This is stoner music; to get the full, gooey effect of the melodic bass you should be dipping your toes in a different state of consciousness, and in the desert, preferably.

Welder was my favorite but he has been for a while; his music made my body create new dance moves, to express itself in new ways and surprise my brain, which makes this nerd feel happy and more connected to the earth and to my carnal being. Good stuff.

I kept wishing we were all outside, and I am sure most of the hippie-flavored crowd would have come with me. Zanzibar’s sound is not the best; I am getting spoiled to epic sound systems and find that more and more these days I choose not to dance at the front of the dance floor, but at the spot where the sound is richest. If Club Zanzibar would allocate half the budget it spent on floor pillows and incense to a better sound system, it would be a vast improvement for this chi-chi club.

The slower tempos create a more mellow evening, with a more expressive dance floor. This longer space between beats means more room to swirl and twist your body parts between moves, which means greater intimidation factor on the dance floor, which means a higher percentage of better dancers because the bad dancers fall away.

I met a lot of really neat people last night. I find that the better the music is, the better the crowd is. Funny how that works. I kept thinking I saw people from Seattle- is that Skoi in the corner? Marie at the bar? Manahan walking in? This is always a good sign for the evening.

Sorry for the puny review; the night was anything but. I would definitely suggest that anyone check out the Divine Invasion Tour as the three guys head up the West Coast for a night of chilled out, tripped out, soul-soothing music.

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DF5K is written to support and promote artists and the electronic music community. I encourage you to buy music from the artists I write about, go out to shows and dance and invite all of your friends!
If you would like me to add/remove any music, please email me at shilonikelle - at - gmail.com.